Sunday, October 26, 2014

Why I Teach Music

Teaching Never Ends

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his
influence stops.” – Henry Adams

I hadn’t heard this quote until sometime during the past
year, when I read it in something a former voice student had written. And I
hadn’t really thought about teaching in those terms until I read this quote.
But this particular student of mine had also become a teacher of music, as have
quite a few others … some in a classroom, some with a private studio such as
mine.

Recently I contacted a former student who is now singing
with the Metropolitan Opera chorus and asked him how many years he’s been at
the Met. His response surprised and delighted me: this year marks the start of
his sixteenth year. I vividly recall his lessons with me; I was working with
him late in his high school years, helping him prepare to study vocal
performance and music education.

He did so well with his undergraduate studies
he went on to graduate school as a vocal performance major in my alma mater,
the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. I will never forget the teachers
at that school, and the way music unfolded for me under their guidance.

I opened my voice studio thirty-five years ago and I have since met
several hundred people who wanted to learn how to use their voices better and
learn more about music. I think I helped nearly all of them, at least to a
point. Some have stayed in touch with me, which is very gratifying. Some I see
fairly often because they continue to live nearby; some I see occasionally.
Some I have reconnected with thanks to Facebook.

This weekend I saw three former students perform, two in an
excellent community theater production of Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant
near-opera, SWEENEY TODD. One has been out of college for I’m sure over ten
years, the other is a fairly recent high school graduate. Both of them seemed
so polished, so assured on stage, and presented fine performances. I was very
proud of them. They both have wonderful voices and sang particularly well. I’m
happy I had a chance to spend time with them when they were high school
students, and I could give them some guidance about singing and introduce them
to music I love.

That was Saturday night; then Sunday afternoon I saw another
former student in a very different setting. This young man graduated seven
years ago from high school, completed college and worked for two years in New
York City as a paralegal. Then he made a one hundred eighty degree turn, leaving
the city, leaving the law profession, and hitting the road to see the country
and to write music – music for voice and guitar.

I saw him in a local venue and
heard some of the songs he’d dreamed and created and has recorded. It was equally
exciting for me to hear what he is doing. His tenor voice works well in the
music he’s written and performs. He sounds assured and joyful, and he lets his
voice soar. I am very proud of him and grateful to have been in his life.

The books I write are about the power of creativity, music
in particular, in people’s lives, and how it helps my characters deal with
extremely difficult situations. But music helps us deal with all situations,
really, and gives us joy as nothing else can. I like to feel I’ve helped my
students come to at least a sense of that joy. If I’ve done that, I’ve been a
good teacher.

About Me

After growing up in the unique town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, I went to the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati as a vocal performance major. I met and married a tenor and we had three children, and moved to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in 1971 where I established a private voice studio and began directing community and high school musical productions. While in Cincinnati I had the good fortune to be on the administrative staff of the Edgecliff Academy of Fine Arts and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.

Here in the Poconos, I directed over eighty musicals from 1984-2015, and had the privilege of seeing many of my private voice students become teachers, professional performers, and most of all, find the joy in using their singing voices.

In 2013 I fulfilled a lifelong dream and wrote my first ever book, a novel entitled HOW I GREW UP, My second novel, ELI'S HEART, was published in June, 2014. My third novel, YOU ARE MY SONG, was released in January, 2015. Novel number four, JAMIE'S CHILDREN, was released in July, 2016, and MEMORIES OF JAKE in March, 2017. MAN WITH NO YESTERDAYS is scheduled to be released on Nov. 11, 2017. My first non-fiction book, "MORE FOG, PLEASE" about my 31 years as a director for community and high school musicals, was released on November 11, 2015.